TEXAS JOHNNY BROWN
Fri-Sat, June 4-5
The Yardbird Suite
11 Tommy Banks Way (Corner of 102 Street & 86 Avenue)
Tickets: Members: $16, Guests: $20
Doors 8 pm, show 9 pm

JW JONES
Until Sat, June 5
Blues on Whyte (Commercial Hotel)
(10329-82 Ave.)
For more info call: 439-5058

Texas Johnny Brown could be the poster child for the expression "Music keeps you young." His first professional gig was with Amos Milburn in 1946, and he’s a vital performer and engaging personality to this day.

"You can’t do anything without music," says the sharp-as-a-tack Brown from his Houston home. "If you want to keep in touch with life, stay in touch with music–you can’t do anything without music and it keeps you fresh and up to the times."

In the times when Brown came up, blues, jazz, and early rock ’n’ roll musicians all worked together. "I went to Korea in 1950, and when I came back I went back into [Amos] Milburn’s band [the Aladdin Chickenshackers]", Brown relates. "I worked with everybody: Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Reed, Little Richard. We played a lot of theatres with big bands and also did a lot of revues, where we would play arenas or big tents. I was bandleader for Junior Parker and Milburn in those days. It was an exciting time, but there was good and bad. It all helped me arrive where I am. I like to say that I’ve been rich all my life, I just haven’t had a lot of money."

The self-taught guitarist, who lists almost no one as an influence, says, [legendary pioneering jazz guitarist] "Charlie Christian is the only guitar player who ever really influenced me... I never had formal training, and I never did want to sound like anyone else. I wanted to have my own sound."

After recording numerous sides for the Duke/Peacock label, penning a number of blues classics including "There Goes The Blues" for Bobby Blue Bland and working with a veritable "Who’s Who" of jazz and blues musicians, Brown quit playing full time in 1963. "I had responsibilities with my kids growing up, and I had to look after them." In 1991, Brown took up playing again and has been singing, writing and playing the blues with his "Quality Blues Band" ever since. He’s put out two critically acclaimed albums, Nothin’ But the Truth and Defender of the Blues; Nothin’ But the Truth snagged a 1999 W.C. Handy nomination as "Comeback Album of the Year" while the Houston Press Music Awards honoured Brown with "Best Guitarist" (1999 & 2001) and "Best Male Vocalist" (1999 & 2000). Brown also did a brief stint as a music educator. "I taught a few years with the Houston Independent School District, talking about blues to fourth grade classes for the most part."

But, he’s got plenty to say to everyone about the current state of the blues. "I think there’s a lot of room for the blues and always will be, but you can’t deliver what you haven’t done. You can’t sing about mines and cotton fields if you haven’t been there... It’s got to move on to another level to keep in touch with all people of all ages."

For his first appearance in Canada in over 40 years, the Graham Guest Band will back Texas Johnny Brown.

If Texas Johnny Brown is the elder statesman of the blues in town this weekend, JW Jones is the young upstart. Just 23, JW Jones has been playing the blues professionally since his teens and has had his own band since 1998. With three albums under his belt, and recently nominated as the "Best New Artist" at the Maple Blues Awards, the youngster from Ottawa is developing into a major Canadian blues talent.

My Kind of Evil, his most recent recording, was released on Northern Blues on May 18th. Kim Wilson, of Fabulous Thunderbirds fame, has become a supporter and fan of Jones’ and sat in the producer’s chair for the sessions. The (highly recommended) album swings hard; it’s full of stinging solos, great horn arrangements, and it shows Jones as a developing songwriter, having penned 10 of the 14 tracks. It doesn’t hurt that Wilson and Colin James both lent vocal support or that Wilson plays harp on a pair of tracks.

A full touring schedule (over 165 dates in 2003) has also helped Jones refine his live guitar sound, and he has developed into a first class exponent of the "West Coast" sound, as typified by Little Charlie, Junior Watson, Rick Holmstrom and Rusty Zinn.

Fresh off a tour of Australia that ended in late April, the band should be in fine form. Look for Nathan Morris, bass, Bill Brennan, drums, Geoff Daye, keyboards, to rip it up in fine style through Saturday night at the Blues on Whyte.